Syrian Army gains full control of Yarmouk Basin from ISIS – report

The Syrian Army and its allies have taken full control of the Yarmouk Basin in southwestern Syria after routing Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants, the Hezbollah group’s al-Manar TV said on Tuesday. The basin borders Israel and Jordan, and had been the last embattled pocket of the southwest after an advance by President Bashar Assad’s forces into the longtime rebel stronghold. The army seized the main IS redoubt in the town of Shajara on Monday, which left just a few villages in the hands of IS-affiliated faction, the Khalid Ibn al-Walid army, which had controlled the Yarmouk Basin. Completing the recovery of the southwest would leave rebels largely confined to a stretch of territory in the northwest, Reuters said.